Tuesday, July 7, 2015

What teaching strategies can help Garth to be successful?

In my research on intellectual disabilities I was able to identify some specific learning strategies that can be used in general for students with intellectual disabilities. But knowing Garth helps me to be able to identify what may be helpful for him and I believe that knowing the students needs and personality helps us to more successfully identify what the specific student needs to be successful.
For Garth one of the most successful ways to help him to achieve a desired outcome is a rewards system, and we have also learned the M&Ms is the only reward needed. This system has been used in many of his classes along with helping him to perform better at work as well. Garth's teachers realized that if you told him he would get a snack sized pack of M&Ms at the end of a class period if he behaved then he acted much better throughout the class.
Another strategy that helped Garth was giving lots of examples and clear instructions about what he should do. His teachers found that he had trouble visualizing what he was supposed to do, so they found if they gave him a clear example of what he was supposed to do then he was able to do it much more successfully. 

There are many more strategies that can help Garth that include, reducing distractions, having him near a peer that can give him assistance if needed, having someone available to help him with reading and much more. The important part about teaching strategies to help the student is that they are individualized to help the specific student as much as possible. 

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